Kelly Thomas case: Officers described ‘fight,’ investigator testifies

Share this:

A memorial to Kelly Thomas at the Fullerton Transportation Center has been decorated with a Christmas theme. The trial of Fullerton police officers accused in his death entered its third day Wednesday in Santa Ana.

In his opening statements Monday in the Kelly Thomas beating trial, John Barnett, the defense attorney for former Fullerton police Officer Manuel Ramos, asks the jury to think of what Thomas was thinking when he encountered Ramos at the Fullerton Transportation Center on July 5, 2011.

Sound

The gallery will resume inseconds

Former Fullerton police Officer Jay Cicinelli, 42, listens intently to the opening statements of John Barnett, the defense attorney for fellow former Fullerton police Officer Manuel Ramos, in court on Monday.

Former Fullerton police Officer Manuel Ramos, 39, listens to opening statements by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas on the first day of the trial in Kelly Thomas' death.

During his opening statement Monday, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas shows the jury an image of Fullerton police trying to subdue Kelly Thomas at the Fullerton Transportation Center on July 5, 2011.

SANTA ANA – A crime-scene investigator testified Wednesday that she found Fullerton police Officer Manuel Ramos sitting on a patrol car holding his rib cage about 90 minutes after his encounter with a homeless man in a downtown parking lot in July 2011.

“He said it hurt,” Dawn Scruggs testified. “He said he was in the fight of his life. He said he never had anyone fight him that way.”

Scruggs was called by the prosecution in Ramos’ murder trial to document the photographs she took the evening of July 5, 2011, after transient Kelly Thomas, 37, was taken away in an ambulance, bloody and unconscious.

Thomas died five days later after his life support was removed at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Ramos, 39, is standing trial on second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges – the first uniformed officer in Orange County history to be charged with murder for an on-duty incident. He is being tried with former police Cpl. Jay Cicinelli, 41, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter and assault under color of authority.

Ramos and Cicinelli have pleaded not guilty. Both are no longer employed by the Fullerton Police Department.

Scruggs, who said she has processed 5,000 to 10,000 crime scenes in her career as a crime-scene investigator, testified she also took photographs that night of Cicinelli and other officers involved in the melee with Thomas. Cicinelli, who raced to the scene in his patrol car after he heard a radio report that officers needed assistance, used his Taser on the shirtless Thomas, first to jolt him and then as an instrument to strike him in the face, according to evidence presented earlier in the trial.

Scruggs told the jury that Cicinelli looked tired and shaken after the encounter, which was captured by a surveillance camera and digital audio recorders on the officers’ uniforms.

“He explained to me that this guy would not stop fighting, he would not stop fighting,” Scruggs said. “He said he Tasered him a couple of times and it had no effect. He would not stop fighting.”

Scruggs said she arrived at the scene at 9:15 p.m., shortly after the struggle ended, and saw several police cars, fire engines and ambulances, officers and spectators – and Thomas lying on the ground. She said she drove to UCI Medical Center about four hours later and took photographs of Thomas in his hospital bed.

Thomas, she said, was not conscious or responsive.

The photos of Thomas have not been shown to the eight-woman, four-man jury yet. Defense attorneys are objecting to those exhibits, contending that the prejudicial effect of the images outweighs their value in deciding the case. That issue will be decided by Superior Court Judge William Froeberg later.

Also on Wednesday, a Fullerton fire captain who has been a paramedic for 24 years said he saw Thomas lying on the ground when he arrived at the scene, after officers told him another officer needed medical attention.

Capt. Ron Stancyk said he walked over to Thomas and noticed blood on his face and slow breathing, blood going in and out of his flaring nostrils.

While Thomas was in “respiratory distress,” Stancyk said, he was a “viable” patient, breathing on his own, with blood pressure and a pulse.

It wasn’t until Thomas was placed into the ambulance that his heart stopped and personnel began CPR, Stancyk said. Later, a hospital doctor inserted a breathing tube and Thomas was moved to UCI Medical Center, still unconscious, he said.